Fountains at Farah in East El Paso will feature 60-80 tenants

The Fountains at Farah retail center will feature two components a parkway with fountains and lined by upscale shops, as well as more conventional row of big-box stores and other, smaller retailers in a section behind a sloping parking structure with some covered parking. A trolley bus will shuttle shoppers around the center.

After almost a decade of starts and stops with two different developers, two different owners, and wrangling over city tax incentives, the 55-acre site once housing the city's largest garment factory has finally begun its transformation into a major retail center.

The $70 million, 600,000-square-foot The Fountains at Farah is scheduled to open by November 2013 at the site bordered by Hawkins Boulevard and Interstate 10. The 1.2-million-square-foot, 145-store Cielo Vista Mall is across the street.

The giant former Farah garment factory, which sat vacant for years, was demolished in 2010.

Dirt work has been going on at the site for months. The center's contractor expects buildings to begin rising by fall.

The new center will have 30 buildings with 60 to 80 tenants, including 15 to 20 restaurants of various sizes and categories, reported West Miller, president of Centergy Retail, a Dallas-based retail shopping developer.

Miller is a partner in the project with Paul Foster, Western Refining founder and executive chairman, who owns the site.

He won't divulge names of retailers and restaurants going into the center because of confidentiality agreements. Names will be released in the fall, he promised.

A few names have been rumored, including Dick's Sporting Goods and Nordstrom Rack. Barnes & Noble is relocating its East Side bookstore there for sure.

The center will have a parkway with fountains fronting a section of upscale stores.

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A more traditional row of big-box stores and other, smaller retailers will be in a section behind a sloping parking structure, which will include some covered parking. A trolley bus will shuttle shoppers around the center.

"We pushed back (initial plans) because of the recession. Then, we redesigned it. It became a bigger, and grander project," Miller said. "We're going beyond what anyone thought we would build."

The city and county governments agreed to give the development up to $11.

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Vic Kolenc

7 million in tax rebates over an extended period beginning a year after the first stores open as an incentive to demolish the Farah factory building and construct the center.

Mathew McElroy, director of the city Development Department, said, "The current plan is light-years ahead of the original design," which, he said, was more of a conventional "power center" with some big-box retailers.

The new plan makes the center more walkable, with a Main Street lined with shops on both sides and some on-street parking and a parking structure, he said.

The new design reflects attractive retail centers done in other cities, McElroy said.

Miller reported last week that the project is ahead of its leasing goals, with about half the center's space leased so far, and letters of intent from retailers for an additional 25 percent of the space.

"We have about 17 tenants signed so far, with about 300,000 square feet," Miller said. "These are the anchor tenants. Eight to 10 are new to the market."

Barnes & Noble plans to relocate its Viscount Boulevard bookstore to the new center, David Deason, vice president of development for the bookseller, said in a written statement.

Best Buy, which has a store near Barnes & Noble in the Viscount center, also appears headed to The Fountains.

Miller was quoted in Shopping Centers Today last summer saying that The Fountains had leases with Barnes & Noble, and Best Buy. However, Miller last week said the trade publication's story was not accurate. Best Buy officials had no comment.

The developers' agreement with the city reduces the development's tax rebates if it pulls anchor stores from existing East Side major shopping centers, which the agreement defines as centers with at least 500,000 square feet. Barnes & Noble and Best Buy are in a small, neighborhood center.

Dick's Sporting Goods, which would be new to El Paso, has been rumored as one of the major stores going into The Fountains. A spokeswoman at Dick's headquarters in Pittsburgh said company officials had no comment on the speculation. The company bills itself as the nation's largest full-line sporting goods retailer.

Kendall Ault, a spokeswoman for Nordstrom Rack, the discount arm of Seattle-based, upscale Nordstrom department stores, didn't say whether the retailer has plans for The Fountains. But, she said in an email, the company hopes to soon have an announcement for its West Texas customers. It would be another El Paso newcomer.

Bob Ayoub, president of Mimco Inc., an El Paso developer and operator of small shopping centers, said he expects The Fountains to attract national retailers new to El Paso because the location is one of the best in the city.

"It's the first time a lot of national retailers that wanted to come here have a location because Cielo Vista has been full forever," Ayoub said. "Another benefit is if we get them here, (some) will do more than one location in El Paso."

"Cielo Vista won't be happy they're (The Fountains) there, but it will be good for both of them," Ayoub said.

Cielo Vista has added some new stores, including the Apple Store, and upgraded some features in the mall, he said.

"The two will compete hard, and the winner will be you and me, the consumer," Ayoub said.

Les Morris, a spokesman for Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, which owns Cielo Vista and Sunland Park malls, said the company had no comments about The Fountains at Farah.

Simon fought against city tax rebates for the development. Other retail center operators also fought against the rebates, in part because they feared that retailers would be pulled from their centers, or that the rebates would make it more difficult to get new retailers into their centers.

Western Refining's Foster bought the Farah building in 2005 for an undisclosed price. That came a year after a Tampa, Fla., development company owned by billionaire Eddie DeBartolo Jr., former owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team, abandoned plans to put an upscale shopping center at the site. The City Council approved a $25 million financial package for the development, but an increase in the site's property-tax value prompted DeBartolo's company to dump its plans.

Ray Catlin, executive vice president of EMJ Corp., a Tennessee builder specializing in retail centers that is the general contractor for The Fountains at Farah, said this is one of probably three or four major retail centers under construction in the United States. The recession's lingering effects have held back projects, he said.

"Not a lot of these are going up. I'd say this will be one of the premier ones. It will be pretty nice" because of the architecture and amenities, Catlin said.

Tama Shor, publisher of the Directory of Major Malls, said 142 proposed retail centers of 500,000 square feet or more were supposed to open this year and next year in the United States, according to her files. However, she did not know how many of those are actually under construction.

"Projects were pushed back" by the recession and lack of financing, she said. "We're starting to see some (construction) activity again."

Catlin said EMJ wants to get as many local subcontractors involved in building The Fountains as it can. It is now getting subcontractors' bids for portions of the project, he said. The developers' agreement with the city requires at least 25 percent of the companies and/or labor involved in the project to be from El Paso.

Catlin estimated more than 500 construction workers will be involved in the project.

Retaining walls are going up on the site now, and construction of utilities will begin soon, he said. "You'll see structures rising in the fall."

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421. Follow him on Twitter @vickolenc.

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